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East York parents plead with TDSB for school additions

Students are learning in 20-year-old portables that are falling apart and sometimes infested with raccoons, say a group of East York parents who say repairing their children’s schools should be at the top of the Toronto District School Board’s list.

Peter Saros, whose son goes to kindergarten, and Heather Tormey, along with her son Eagan, 10, stand in front of portables at Secord Public School in East York. They are looking for funding to improve conditions at the crowded school. (Colin McConnell / Toronto Star)

By Kristin RushowyEducation Reporter

Wed., Jan. 30, 2013

Parents at five East York schools have banded together, saying they’ve been repeatedly overlooked despite a desperate need for school additions and improvements, including classrooms at times unusable because of raccoon infestations.

“We deserve to be at the top of the list for capital funding,” said Peter Saros, co-chair of the parent council at Secord Public School, near Danforth Ave. and Main St., which is overcrowded and using “20-year decrepit portables.”

On Wednesday, Saros will ask a Toronto District School Board committee to make their schools a priority, given they were left out of a recent announcement of provincial funding for additions at Keele Street and Swansea public schools, as well as renovations at Earl Haig Secondary.

The East York parents wonder if they were ignored because they have little political clout.

“I don’t begrudge any people for advocating for their kids . . . good for them to mobilize and get it,” Saros said. “But I find (the lack of funding) offensive, that’s not equity.

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“We don’t have political sway; if we speak out, it’s not heard.”

The problem in East York began with the introduction of full-day kindergarten at Crescent Town public school — just steps from the Victoria Park subway station — which is already over capacity with no land to expand. That one change had a huge ripple effect.

Crescent Town now ships its oldest students, in Grade 5, to George Webster elementary.

Webster, meanwhile, is already bursting at the seams, with a 14-unit “port-a-pac” — essentially connected portables — as well as eight portables.

Secord, too, has more students than room, and also has a 14-unit port-a-pac. It has no room for full-day kindergarten, which begins there in 2014.

Meanwhile, Parkside school parents are upset because their school is expected to close, and students redirected to D.A. Morrison, which is a middle school and doesn’t have facilities for younger students.

At Webster and Secord, the port-a-pacs are in rough shape, agreed Beaches-East York trustee Sheila Cary-Meagher.

“They are decaying and prone to infestation of raccoons, and sometimes the classrooms are unusable,” she said.

“The stink is incredible — I witnessed it myself.”

Cary-Meagher said the board passed a motion in June that George Webster would receive $30 million; the request was sent to the province.

And the money was expected to be followed with a request the following year for Secord and D.A. Morrison.

For Saros, “it’s a game of one school’s population affecting everyone else’s situation.” But instead of complaining individually, parents have decided to band together to demand change.

“We are, collectively, trying to get the board’s attention. It’s time to get money invested in us.”

The parents have held rallies and are collecting signatures for petitions to be given to trustees.

“These are inner-city schools in a high priority neighbourhood that have been ignored for far too long,” said Sharon Smith of the Parkside school parent council.

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